You found me
by Sparkle.love
Summary: Follow Dora Tonks in her life full of humour, pranks, adventure, friendship, loyalty, tragedy and finally a war that brings her close to her destiny.
1. Chapter 1: The fighter

A/N: Was looking back at this a few days ago and decided to finish it. Just some changes to the plot! :) Please review! :)

Chapter 1: The fighter.

She was out of breath as she ran towards the one thing that made it necessary for her to live on. If she just saw him, one look at his grayish sandy blonde hair, one look into those deep brown eyes, she would have all the courage to go fight, fight till her last breath.

As She ran down into the huge grounds of hogwarts, she could see the flashes of light. There were more of green than any other colour. She knew what it meant. Everyone was fighting to kill. The death eaters at least, she was sure. She wouldn't let it happen again, they wouldn't take anyone else away from her, like they had taken Cedric away, like they had taken Jack away, like they had taken Mad-eye away, like they had taken her dad away. No, they wouldn't take anyone else away from her.

She was scared, not of her death, but of the loss of hundreds of students of Hogwarts who would never get to see life beyond the school. She was scared for the life of the many members of the Order, Most of who were like her own brothers and sisters. She was scared for her Professors, for the Weasleys, for Hermione, for all her fellow aurors, for Harry, who was named the Godfather of her little bundle of joy, safe with her mom. But most of all, she was scared for him, the one who she loved the most, the one who gave her the little bundle of joy, the one with the grayish sandy blonde hair and the shining brown eyes.

As she searched for that one person, she recognised many familiar faces, all wearing the same mask of determination and fear. She knew this day would change these people forever. As an auror, she knew that once you raise your wand to attack instead of defend, that feeling would haunt you forever. Her wand was out and she kept saying words and blasting red flashes of light to the various death eaters she could see.

She felt more than saw someone running towards her and before she could react, he had thrown himself on her and brought her down with him just as she saw a green curse soar above them. Before she could see who it was, she heard a whispered 'Be safe,' and she saw the form of Charlie Weasley get up and run after the death eater who had aimed at her.

As she got back on her feet, she heard the unmistakable crackle of the one death eater that so closely resembled her mother but was nothing like her. She turned around and saw a mass of black curls obstructing a wildly crazy face. Before, whenever she saw this face, she felt fear. Now, all she felt was hatred and disgust at this poor excuse for a human being. All her meetings with this person ended badly. First the psycho had killed her cousin Sirius Black. Next time, had tried to kill Ron and her. Now, there was no mistake, it was clear in her eyes: One of them were going to die tonight. Bellatrix Lestrange was about to fulfil her Master's wishes.

She saw the ever present crazy look in the eyes of her enemy and quickly put up a shield. There was unmistakable glee in the enemy's eyes, like a kid who had been promised sweets, like a lion who had seen a hurt young deer.

Ready to pounce, the enemy raised her wand. She knew what was coming. It was Bellatrix's favourite curse of all. She liked inflicting pain and there was no counter curse.

She made up her mind to jump out of the way as she watched her open her mouth. Just then, She saw scream as blood started pouring out of her left upper arm and just a few feet away, she saw him. Eyes full of hatred and a huge gash on his cheek adding to the scars that he already had. Relief washed over her as she took in his form. He was alright!

She saw him running towards her, concern on his face and question in his eyes. With a smile, she assured him that their bundle of joy was safe. His face relaxed as he made his towards her. On instinct, she turned and saw that Bellatrix had recovered and had her wand was directly aimed at him. She put up a shield between him and the enemy. Suddenly, from nowhere, she saw five to six death eaters join Bellatrix. All of them were leering and their wands were pointed at him or her.

She reached out her wand free hand and grabbed his hand in hers. Their eyes met for a moment. She saw pure determination in his eyes. They would fight, fight to build a better world for their little bundle of joy. Their little son wouldn't grow up in a world filled with people like Bellatrix.

A thousand feelings passed through her in the split second their eyes met. How much she loved him, how much she loved their little bundle of joy, how much her mother meant to her. Flashes of the best and worst moments of her life, her wedding, hearing her father was killed, finding out she was pregnant, Bill Weasley telling that Mad-eye was dead, the first time he kissed her, finding out Hogwarts was under attack, the first time her little son gave a smile, All a blur.

They didn't know if they would survive the night, but both would ensure that the other would survive. At least one of them would see their son grow up. Her son would understand why she did it.

It was with his thought in mind that she turned to face the enemy...

A/N: I assure you, the other chapters will be bigger! Thank you for reading. Please review. :)


	2. Chapter 2: Before losing a Friend

A/N: Please review! :)

Chapter 2: Before losing a friend.

A pop sounded as a figure appeared in the still night air. She appeared very tired as she made her way to a large house on the outskirts of London. She was a young witch in her early twenties, who had a heart shaped face with short hit-you-in-the-face pink coloured hair. Summer was just setting in but there was chill in the air. She moved quickly to the door and went in the house thankful for the warmth.

She closed the door behind her and turned around, not noticing the huge umbrella stand, she tripped over it and brought it down with a loud crash.

'Nymphadora!'

She frowned when she heard this. She didn't like it when anyone called her by her first name. Dora was fine but this name was awfully long and ridiculously silly.

She quickly got up and whipped her wand out and put everything back to normal just as her parents came over to see what had happened.

Her dad was a fair-haired big-bellyed muggle-born wizard who rarely got angry. She loved this about her dad.

Her mother was a kind woman, but was she glaring now!

'What did you break this time, Dora?' her dad asked in a resigned tone.

'Nothing breakable!' she joked.

Her father smiled at her like he always did, while her mother shook her head and went in to the kitchen. The other two followed.

'So how did it go today at the ministry?' Ted Tonks asked his daughter as they sat down at the table.

'Nothing that exciting' she said 'RS talked to all us freshers and paired us up with our seniors. I got Kingsley again and we... Did some stuff.'

Her father just looked at her expecting more. She just shrugged and he dropped the subject.

She didn't want to bring up the subject of Sirius Black, one of her mum's cousins who was a.. murderer convicted of killing around 13 people. He broke out of Azkaban a year ago and was on the run. Kingsley Shacklebolt, one of the senior aurors, her trainer before and now her partner were newly assigned the task of capturing him. They had spent the day receiving information from patrollers and listing out possibilities as to where he would be hiding. She didn't want to bring his name in front of her mother who was very close to him before he was arrested. She plainly refused to believe that he would do anything like that. She would just go out of the room if any one even mentioned his name.

She smiled gratefully at her mother who put a bowl of soup and some bread in front of her and she sat down at the table next to her husband.

'Guess who I met today, Mum!' Dora said as she ate.

'Who?' Andromera asked.

'Dear Lucius Malfoy! He was on level two with fudge and sneered at me as usual.'

'Let's talk about something more pleasant.' her mum said, staring at her fingernails coldly.

'I also saw professor Dumbledore today. He said he was there to talk about the last task of the triwizard tournament to Bagman. It seems they'll announce it to the champions about it today! He told me I was welcome to come and watch it if I was free. I said I might! He also sends his greetings to the both of you.'

'Well, you have always been one of his favorite!' her dad said.

'I wonder how Cedric's holding up.' she said.

'Amos said he's doing very well.. In fact he's tied in the first place with Harry Potter.'

'Oh! That's good. He didn't mention that in his last letter.'

She ate in silence while her parents talked.

'Ok! I'm off to bed' she said, and pushed the soup bowl away and knocked over the chair she had got up from.

'Good night!' she said as cheerfully as ever oblivious to the knocked over chair.

'Where did we go wrong with you Dora?' her mum said.

'Probably in the extremely early stages? it's a question you have to ask dad not me!' she said grinning.

The next day she found herself wandering on the grounds of Hogwarts. She had got a call from ministry earlier that day saying that Crouch was seen at Hogwarts last night and that he had disappeared. Kingsley and her were called in for investigation. They had talked to Moody earlier and he had said that he had searched the forest for Crouch, but had found nothing. Now both of them and the minister had gone to speak to Dumbledore and she was left by herself, till they came back for the inspection of the grounds.

She loved Hogwarts and it's grounds. She was a Hufflepuff.

She remembered, three years ago, when she had just finished Hogwarts, she and her best friend, Jack had promised each other that they would keep in touch and would be friends for life: here, on the banks of the lake she was now walking on. He was now engaged to one of their friend from Hogwarts, Charlie Taylor and worked in Egypt as a curse-breaker for Gringotts, the Wizard bank. Both of them still owled each other and had planned to meet when he came to London next week. She was thinking about him and the pranks she had played on and with him when suddenly her thoughts shifted to someone else.

Moody.

She had known Moody since she trained under him before he retired. He was one of her closest mentor and he had trained her for her first two years in the auror training. She enjoyed making fun of his behaviour and knew that he enjoyed it too, even if he didn't show. But now the old man seemed strange to her. She couldn't point out what it was but she felt him to be distant with her and he just seemed different.

Just then, she saw the others coming and made her way to them. After the inspection (which was useless, they didn't find anything), she heard Moody mutter something about having a class and he walked away. She was seeing his retreating back when she realized that she was walking only with Dumbledore who was seeing his defense professor with a crease between his eyebrows.

'Sir, did you also notice something wrong with him?'

'People change often, even more than the colour of your hair. It's not unlike him to change in such a short time. But it's also quite unlike him to ignore you.'

He said looking at her in his piercing stare. She had this impression that there was something he was hiding about Moody.

She was thinking about what he had said when she heard him chuckle. She turned towards him questioningly. With a twinkle in his eyes, he said, 'I never knew blondes were the ones who think more.'

Her hair had turned blonde without her conscious of it.

She also joined in his laughter.

'And what? Didn't you have brown hair professor? I can see that it has turned white. It's probably people with auburn hair who think too much.' she said cheekily turning her hair auburn.

He laughed and the twinkle in his eyes grew more pronounced.

'Ah! I wish I could agree with you Nymphadora.' He chuckled. 'Excuse me now, I have to return to my office. Young Harry potter is waiting. Good afternoon, Miss Tonks.'

'Good bye professor.'

She turned around to see where Kingsley was when she saw a fourteen year old approaching her. She gave a huge smile as she was hugged by the younger girl tightly.

'Tonks what are you doing here? It's so good to see you.'

'It's nice to see you too, Hannah.'

Hannah Abbot was a fourth year hufflepuff who was Jack's younger sister. Dora, who never had siblings or cousins, (she was not close to anyone from her mums side and she knew no one in her father's side who was young) considered her as a sister.

'I was here on ministry business. How are classes?'

'Oh they are on full steam! You have to see those new beaubotours professor sprout has got. They are huge even bigger than ones I saw in dads workplace...'

Hannah was usually shy and withdrawn but Dora had known her for nearly ten years now, she knew that Hannah liked to talk.

'...So did Jack write to you? he told me he will be coming this month along with Charlie, so he can be with me for the holidays.'

'Yes I received his letter yesterday. He said that he will be here sometime next week. He also said that he has a surprise for you.'

She looked like she was struggling for words and suddenly blurred out, 'They have fixed on a date for the wedding haven't they?'

'Yeah! Good guessing genius.' She laughed as hair turned back to her customary pink with her excitement.

'Yay! I knew it. Don't worry, I won't tell mum and dad. I know he wants to tell them himself.'

She saw her own happiness reflected in Hannah's eyes. After all, both of them loved Jack very much and were very happy that he chose such a worthy partner for himself.

'So shall we give him one of our pranks for his wedding?'

'Ok tell me when you think of one. I have a class in five minutes Tonks. I have to go. You'll owl me right?'

'Sure. I might come for the last task of the tournament too. Headmaster invited me.'

'Ok Tonks, see ya! If you go home give mum and dad my love.'

'Sure. Hannah bye'.

She gave Hannah a one arm hug and the fourth year student went away towards the castle.

Kingsley was still with the minister. So she thought she would go and see her old head of the house

Professor Sprout was her head of the house and was one of her favorite professors. She loved how the older witch treated and understood her students.

She was just about to enter the greenhouses when she had a brainwave. She closed her eyes and her face showed a look of pure concentration. A moment later, in her place stood a slightly plump red haired woman with age starting to show on her face.

She entered the greenhouse number three and was not surprised to see Cedric Diggory along with the professor.

Both of them noticed her, and surprise evident on their faces, looked around.

'Hello ma'am, how may I help you?' the Professor asked.

'You must be Professor Sprout. I am from the Daily Prophet. My name is Anne Jonas, I would like to do an article on the exotic magical plants you have here..'

She had reached where professor was standing and put out her hand to shake and in the process knocked down a pot full of dragon dung.

The crash caught her off guard and her hair turned back to pink.

'You have to do better than that, Tonks. Still clumsy.' Diggory said, laughing.

'Wotcher Cedric! Hello Professor!' she said as she turned her features back to her usual appearance and started repairing the damage.

Cedric Diggory was in his fourth year when she had left Hogwarts. Both of them though very different from outside, with Tonks very energetic, clumsy and loud and Cedric silent, responsible and observant, were very alike deep down. They got along well.

Their parents were very friendly and thus they were good friends thanks to the many social events and projects their parents undertook together.

'Nymphadora! That's the third time you are doing the same trick on me. I wish I could still give you detentions.' Professor Sprout said.

'You can try, Professor.' she smirked 'How are you?'

'I am fine dear. And you? Finished auror training?'

'Yes Professor I finished it three weeks ago and now am a fully trained auror.'

'Congratulations, Its nice to a former Hufflepuff student of mine as an auror.'

'Thanks!'

Just then the bell rang to announce the starting of the classes. So she said goodbye to Professor Sprout and Cedric and her exited the green house together.

'Tonks, how come you're here today?'

'Ministry business. how are you doing? With the NEWTs coming up I mean.'

'Actually because of the tournament, I was exempted from the exams but dad wanted me to take up my NEWTs. So am just waiting for these damned exams to get over.'

'Speaking of tournament I might be coming to the last task, you know, Professor Dumbledore invited me!'

'Yes Tonks, please try. It will be great having you there cheering me on.'

'I thought Cho Chang would fulfill that requirement.' she teased him.

He blushed a little and asked 'Who told you?'

'I have my sources. Just remember I'll be watching you!'

'There's nothing to watch!' he said blushing deeper as she smirked.

She knew this from Hannah who had written to her about how the Yule ball had gone.

She dropped the subject they were almost near the castle when she asked, 'Nervous about the task? You will do well, Ced. I am sure.'

'Thanks Tonks. I am nervous but am putting up with it. More worried about the NEWTs I guess. I'll be happy when this year gets over.'

'Oh! Yeah. Then it's only your auror training.' she joked.

'Well yeah! I am excited about that.'

'Ok! Ced. I'll see you. I have to get back now.' She said, noticing that the minister had gone away and her fellow auror waiting for her.

'Bye. Try to come to the task, Tonks please.'

'Sure, kid.' she said ruffling his hair.

'Stop doing that and am not a kid.' he said, glaring, but the laughter in his eyes gave it away.

'That's the attitude of a mature grown up! Way to go.'

He poked out his tongue and started walking away. Then turned back and waved.

She waved back and made her way toward Kingsley.

'So what did the minister say?' she asked.

'Completely clueless. He suspects Madame Maxime's got something to do with this. But Dumbledore is defending her. It seems the Potter kid and Victor Krum saw him and he was completely out of his mind but he said something about he-who-must-not-be-named getting stronger and that his son is alive. I went to talk to Krum and asked him a few questions while the Minister was with the Professor and Moody. He said the 'mad man' attacked him when he was not looking and woke up only when Dumbledore and Potter woke him up. The professor seems genuinely troubled and Mad-eye also seemed deep in thought. I don't know what to make of it.' he said, his calm deep voice sounded as if strained.

'Is it that bad?' she asked. She had never seen Kingsley getting so frustrated. He was usually calm and it seemed weird on him. 'Now we just have to wait for Crouch or his son to say peek-a-boo!'

'Tonks!' he was glaring.

'Ok.. Shutting up.'

He took a deep breath and said in his deep voice 'Well, we have a long day ahead. Very long days and late nights ahead. Where are you staying tonight?'

When she started earning, she had brought a two bedroom flat in the heart of the city as she sometimes worked late. Yesterday night she just wanted to sleep in her old room.

'Mine, I'll go over at the weekend.'

'Ok. Let's get back to the ministry.'

Heya dors!

How are you? How is work? Tiring right? I told you, you should have gone for curse breaking like me.

Me and Charlie have something to tell you. We have decided to end it all and jump straight into the pit. (Translation: We have decided on the big day.) I'll tell you when it is when I come there next Thursday. I am writing to Mom and Dad and Hannah also about a surprise but didn't tell them what it is! I am counting on you to keep it secret till we come.

Everything else is pretty much the same and it's getting very hot here. Part of the reason why I am coming in summer!

Can't wait to see you guys! (I know I write that about thrice a week. But it's true!)

Reply soon.

Love,

Jack.

P. S. Charlie says hi!

Dora smiled as she reread the letter Jack had written. It was nearly midnight and she was in her room in her London home, cleaning out her desk.

It was messy, full of parchments and witch weekly magazines. Most of them were research on how Black escaped from Azkaban. She was now part of both the investigations. Nearly 4 days had passed since the trip to Hogwarts and still they had nothing on Crouch. It seemed he had disappeared off the face of earth or more likely killed. Her days were tiring with scanning the forbidden forest, Hogsmade and places surrounding Hogwarts.

Many of the Wizangmont were on the edge with what had happened at the world cup and now dealing with the missing of two ministry workers, Bertha Jorkins and Mr. Crouch. It put a lot of pressure on aurors and the department of magical law enforcement. Most of the aurors were working overtime and were showing signs of stress.

Kingsley had spoken to crouch's assistant who admitted that he hadn't seen crouch since November, he said that his boss was ill but sent letters. He was sure it was from Crouch only. It was checked with a spell and was found to be true.

Then they hit a dead end. A thorough search of his house showed that no one lived there for the last two weeks.

So all the time was spent on scanning the wider range of areas around Hogwarts and Crouch's house.

She sighed as she tried to clear out these thoughts from her head. It was bad enough at the ministry. She didn't want to spend her time at home brooding over it.

She smiled when she noticed Jack's letter still in her hand and put it away with all his other letters. She couldn't help but feel happy when she thought about him and Charlie.

Charlie Taylor was in Hogwarts with them but a year junior. She was a Ravenclaw. Dora had met her in her fifth year when Dora was in the hospital wing because of one of her many injuries due to her clumsiness.

She had actually crashed into one of the suits of armors on the third floor staircase and fallen down two staircases and hit her head! She was there for a day when a girl entered and had tried to explain to Madam Promfey that someone had slipped her a potion that made her whistle whenever she tried to talk. It was very funny and the fact that the girl had to write it down in the end made it even more funnier. Then Jack had walked in to see Dora and she found out that he was the one who had pranked the poor girl. It wasn't intended but Dora made him apologize and the girl who was Charlie accepted it with a smile. She learnt that the girl was really sweet and did not hold any grudges. Then she had become fast friends with Dora and something much more than that to Jack. He later admitted that he had fallen for her the first time he saw her. They started dating in Jacks seventh year. Charlie also took curse breaking after her schooling and both of them moved to Egypt to work with Gringotts and for the ministry there.

They were due to arrive in three days and she was really looking forward to it.

The first few months after Hogwarts were difficult for her. She missed Jack more than anything. All the people at Hogwarts were used to her overenthusiastic and loud character. But it was different at the ministry. It was difficult for her to cope with the pressure of auror training alone. Her friends still wrote but it was not like their real presence. Mad-eye was her trainer. At first, she was scared of him. With his magical eye and heavily scarred face, he looked like a formidable person who should never be crossed. This only increased for the first few days when she learnt about his obsession with cautiousness. But once the shock of seeing him regularly wore off, she found him to be quite a humourous person. Every comment he said had dry humour behind it. A warrior at heart, he was one of the best fighters in the war against You-know-who and most of the Azkaban prisoners were caught by him. He was against killing and his record was the proof of it. They had still kept in touch after his retirement. He was at the ministry now and then till he took up his job at Hogwarts.

She cleaned her desk a little and gave it up and suddenly feeling very exhausted, decided to go to bed. As she got into her warm bed, she smiled to herself. Thinking of her friends always cheered her up. She never felt it necessary to have someone special in her life. Her friends were enough to make her happy. Sure, she had dated in school but now she didn't feel the need. She didn't mind waiting for her right guy. She gave a contented sigh and fell asleep.

A/N: Next chapter In January. Happy new year! :) Thankyu for reading! Please review. :)


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